Jobs Shifting From Offline to Online?

12 Sep 2008

I am so fortunate in this life to get know know smart and talented people who connect me to other smart and talented people.

I won’t divulge her name because she has not given me the ok, but one of my amazing students from last semester (who while studying at Georgetown and another institution of higher learning trained for and completed the Boston Marathon) has virtually introduced me to Jim Long. Jim, on his “about page,” says:

We stand at a tipping point in the media world. Existing media models, weighted on the side of big corporations, big finance, big hits, and big stars are crumbling around us. The pendulum has swung. Now, trend spotters, micro-celebrities, and the new influencers are using the power of social networking, syndication, and online distribution to aggregate audience and leverage their value.”

True ‘dat.

And as usual, other folks find smart statistics, that I, um, “appropriate.” The one below is from Jim’ post “Trendspotting-Finding Opportunity in Career Uncertainty.” I urge you all to visit Jim’s blog, but he succinctly makes the point in the chart and subsequent paragraph:

See that blue line on the graph? That represents jobs data for the TV news industry according to Simply Hired. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a network news cameraman by trade, still clinging on to rapidly diminishing fortunes. The more appealing green line represents job data results for “Social Network”. So as that downward job trend continues across legacy media, I still believe there is tremendous opportunity in social media.”